BDC Coordinator Commission

[Eley Duke]

Curious to how everyone is paying their BDC coordinators

Which do you focus on;
A. Pay more for a Show
B. Pay more for a Sale

Thoughts on why you do it your way.

What are you paying for a show and sale?

Thanks, and Happy New Year to everyone!

Eley

 

[Heather]

I can honestly say that getting the customer into the dealership is the hardest part.... My opinion is that the show should be a higher commission than the sale. (We get $40 for the show and $20 for the sale.)

 

[Chad Carleton]

I'm curious what the other metrics are on establishing a connection with the customer. Must a BDC be mostly focused on setting appointments to produce for their dealership?

 

[yagoparamo]

@Eley Duke

Based on some of the questions that dealers have asked me and several set ups that I have seen.

• It depends on the base salary.
• It depends on the other tasks associated to the BDC; are they doing newsletters, social media, content, etc or just answering leads?
• If you want to pay based on the sale; can they chose the salesperson they want to give the lead to? How much are they responsible for (like how much information do they need to pass to the sales person)?

 

[Chad Carleton]

@Eley Duke

Based on some of the questions that dealers have asked me and several set ups that I have seen.

• It depends on the base salary.
• It depends on the other tasks associated to the BDC; are they doing newsletters, social media, content, etc or just answering leads?
• If you want to pay based on the sale; can they chose the salesperson they want to give the lead to? How much are they responsible for (like how much information do they need to pass to the sales person)?

What do you think is an optimal set-up for dealers? How does this differ from small 200 car, to large 600 car, to 2 or 3 rooftop groups?

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

I can honestly say that getting the customer into the dealership is the hardest part.... My opinion is that the show should be a higher commission than the sale. (We get $40 for the show and $20 for the sale.)

That's an extremely generous pay plan Heather. A good BDC rep could make 100K there.

Eley,

BDC controls setting the appointment and sales controls selling the car. So they should be paid a higher percentage on the show. Only reason why you pay them on the sales is because you want them doing the follow-up to help facilitate the sale if it does not happen on 1st visit. And no, they should not be paid an additional appointment commission for bringing them back a second time.

 

[yagoparamo]

@Chad Carleton

I think the optimal sep up depends on volume, make, and the present sales team. All Eley's questions, mines, yours, are valid points when considering the optimal plan and each store should carefully consider these.

For example, a BDM manager is more important at a outside metro store with managers and average salespeople 55+ than in a metro store where the managers are 35 and they can be part of the modern process.

@Jerry Thibeau

I disagree with that. A BDC department can make people show that can't buy a car. A BDC with the incentive of a sale will dig deeper to make sure the customer brings all paperwork needed, the right vehicle is prepared, the manager knows the proper trade info, pay off, etc.

I further disagree with you that BDC just controls the appointment and sales the sale. The way things are working in many markets the BDC knows a lot more about the sale than the salesperson that meets the customer for the test drive. I think each dealer needs to evaluate the abilities of their team and set up accordingly (IE if you have a strong BDC team give them more control).

Just to end this in a total disagreement with Jerry (I guess I'm buying drinks at NADA!) I don't think 100K is a generous plan. Nothing is generous if it is properly correlated to sales and therefore earned based on money brought into the company. If I owned a dealer I wish I would pay Heather 250k a year, that would mean we sold a lot of cars at a base + $60/unit cost.

 

[Baron Ringler]

Paying high on shows is a mistake. I can pull in tons of homeless people and credit rejects and all sorts of flotsam that have no intention of purchasing a car. It's complex, but what we do is pay an escalating amount per show, that is also contingent on overall close percentage of what is brought in to the store. This encourages aggressiveness without stupidity. We don't need to be importing problems in to the store tht will just cause a major issue and also bad attitude from the sales team.

Second, on solds, we do not do a strictly 'per sold' setup. We also concentrate on sold of opportunity count, with escalating scales the better people perform with the opportunities they have. I would rather pay the rep who closes 15% of opportunity more than the one who may take more opportunities and have more units but only closes at a 10% rate.

We over-pay for over-performance, and underpay for average performance. I have a rotation team of just 6 reps doing 280-300 cars per month, all of them "A" players, who make money and want to stay. Can't get better than that.

 

[Baron Ringler]

PS, for the first time in 2 years I am looking to add a BDC rotational representative (I told you my people make money and stick around). I moved one in to leasing and I also need two more lease retention people. Northern Jersey. 600 car per month single franchise rooftop. If anyone can reference someone out please let me know.

 

[Stefan]

We pay a Base plus for Set and Show. Nothing for Sold.